boat is not going to fit into
your average suburban
carport but modern
technology means that
a kit of precision steel
panels is easy, so once
we get the first one sorted
we’ll be able to work up
a comprehensive digital
building manual for small
shipyard anywhere.
It’s been a labour of
love to work out all the
details from carbon
fibre Squaresail yards
to cargo handling gear.
The hull is very similar to
thousands of other small
cargo vessels but the
sailing requirement meant
that great care had to
be taken in achieving an
easily driven hull that was
stable and capacious,
handy to windward and
able to safely take the
ground.
Efficiency and reliability
were the key words so
there’s a crew of only
three and the aim is
for zero fuel costs. The
important issue here is
that the thing has to be
a viable proposition, it’s
utterly pointless to design
a lovely romantic square
rigger which needs a
crew of twenty and can’t
handle containers. From
50-tonne steel ships to
100kg Shimmys, the
same principles apply –
the vessel must be fit for
purpose.
Details of the new cargo
boat are available –
email to discuss derek@
scruffie.com
shimmy finessing
We will have finished and delivered another Shimmy
by the time you read this, they are now firmly
established as our most successful model. We’ve
taken more steps to refine the build process, this time
more work in pre-priming and pre-fabrication of all the
parts in the never ending quest for an efficient, fast
building procedure.
The photos show various stages, most self-
explanatory, but you can see we’ve built up coats of
epoxy primer on the frames and bulkheads, sanding
them back to matt prior to assembly. I glassed and
primed the keel before assembly too, I do this for
some kits as it’s much easier to sand flat on a bench
or trestles than sand a vertical keel on an already
built boat. It all helps. Made sure the rudder was
assembled and faired before priming the hull this time- I sometimes forget – so the hull and rudder can be
coated together.
I’ve been framed.Rudder keel interface.